The Getty Museum released on 14th-August-2013 over 4,000 images into public domain (i.e. free). According to the ArtObserved article on the museum’s public release made public on their Getty Iris blog, this is part of their, “Open Content” commitment of their digital resources.

Stanczyk, knows what you’re thinking, “I am too busy on my genealogy to search through museum images”. But I politely urge you to reconsider. While I was searching their images, I found a genealogical family tree, of Duke Ludwig I of Brzeg (amongst many other images he commissioned). A Polish noble of house Piast. So if your family tree intersects, get thee to the Getty Museum. For those curious, I have posted the images to this blog. The text is Fraktur looking, gothic, German script.

Wordless Wednesday — Enjoy this document, that I found at the Smithsonian. I do not think it dates back to the 1776 era, but it looks like late 19th century or early 20th century ephemera. It is beautiful. One question, though, “Why does John Hancock get billing on par with Washington and Jefferson?” The 13 original colonies are also pictured … just a beautiful replica of the U.S. Declaration of Independence !

Stanczyk loves the history of our nation (USA). The U.S. history is much younger than our European ancestral villages. But, in 2013, we will celebrate and remember the Battle of Gettysburg July 1-3rd, 1863 on its 150th anniversary.
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Philadelphia is the cradle of American Civilization. During the Fourth of July Celebration (Welcome America), in addition to the normal July 4th celebrations, there will be additional events this year, the 150th after the battle of Gettysburg.
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JERUSALEM (AP) – Once a year, Israel’s Jewish war veterans don suit jackets and uniforms dripping in Red Army medals, the shiny bronzes and silvers pinned to their chests in tight rows like armor. About 500,000 Jews served in the Soviet Red Army during World War II. Most of those still alive today – about 7,000 – are said to live in Israel. Every year on Victory Day, which falls on Thursday this year …

The Constitution of May 3, 1791 (Konstytucja Trzeciego Maja) was drafted between October 6, 1788, and May 3, 1791, when it was adopted by the Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . The contitution’s adoption was preceded by a period of agitation with the Convocation Sejm of 1764 and the election of Stanisław August Poniatowski as the Commonwealth’s last elective monarch.

The constitution had sought to prevail over and eliminate the anarchy, caused by the Liberum Veto, which had put the Country/King at the mercy of any single Sejm deputy who chose, or was bribed by an internal interest or external foreign power, to undo all the legislation that had been passed by the Sejm. The constitution’s adoption met with immediate hostilities, both political and military by the Commonwealth’s neighbors. In the War in Defense of the Constitution, the Commonwealth’s ally Prussia, broke its alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was effectively defeated by the three Empires: Russia, Prussia, & Austria-Hungary (aka Hapsburg).

[NOTE the parallels between this Sejm’s use of liberum veto and the U.S. Congresses of 2008-present who have abused/utilized omni-present obstructionist tools: filibuster and cloture to keep the Obama administration for achieving its goals.]

British historian, Norman Davies describes the legal document as “the first constitution of its type in Europe”; Other historians documented it as the world’s second oldest codified national constitution after the U.S. Constitution, which was effective on March 4, 1789 — just two years earlier.

The Commonwealth’s 1791 Constitution remained in effect for all of 14 months and 3 weeks. It would be a long time until the Second Republic would re-emerge after World War I and Poland would re-appear and be a free republic again.

Living history is so finite. I hope my blog captures the fragility and preserves history / family history before they are lost. Also, I know I am writing for a future. They will look back upon blogs and judge their quality when studying this era and what this era found important. I find Simcha Rotem, an eye witness / participant of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of World War II compelling and authentic.

week ago Stanczyk wrote about Cholera and its 5th Pandemic. This week I was searching for ‘Status Animarum‘ (Latin for ‘State of the Souls’). That is a type of church census. Often these censuses include three generations. I stopped in a list of Google results. I stopped for Cleveland’s St. Stanislaus’ 1918 Status Animarum.

Now Stanczyk has a branch of the family in Cleveland and at the St Stanislaus parish. 1918 was the tail end of World War I. It was also the main year of the last epidemic, … the flu, sometime called the Spanish Flu. More people died from the flu than from the war. Pestilence won again. I am sure war had something to do with the pestilence and people weakened immune systems.

World War I was different then almost all other wars in US history. We had citizens training and fighting in two armies against a common enemy. You had Polish-Americans serving in the US Army and you had Polish Americans serving in the French colors (Blue Army), Polish-led (General Haller), Canadian-trained, with men from the USA who were Polish ethnically. So a world war and pestilence both ran amok.

This Status Animarum was not the kind like in European parishes that listed two-three family generations and their home, census-like. This was a Status Animarum Report — summarized at the parish level …

Blessedly, with about one thousand men serving in the military (3/4 USA, 1/4 Polish) and the Flu Pandemic, only 18 men had died!

1.8%

Statistically, Cleveland’s St. Stanislaus had lucked out. The other statistic, 25% of the men served in Haller’s Army (aka the Blue Army). This device allowed the US men to have a presence in the World War, before the USA was ready … emotionally to end its isolationism and enter the war itself. I wonder if this percentage held true in all Polish parishes in the USA?

What desperate times were those? And yet, is today not like a hundred years ago? We shall see. It has been nearly a century since the last pandemic. Will the Chinese bird-flu be the next pandemic? Time will tell. Certainly, there is plenty of warfare about the globe and plenty of sabre rattling.

This is the same father (man) that claims the US is framing his sons for: the Boston Marathon bombing killing 3, wounding about 180 others, killing of MIT campus officer, car jacking, running gunfights / bomb throwing, running over Tamerlane, having guns/ammo/bombs(IEDs), shooting police … etc.

[Did I miss any of the ALLEGED offenses that father thinks are not true of his sons???]

Translation of Interview (of Anzor Tsarnaew – АнзорЦарнаев):

Father of Tsarnaevich brothers, some years living in Dagestan, is confident that his sons were not involved in bloody events that took place a few days ago in Boston in the United States. The eldest son of Tamerlane, he said, was happily married – with his American wife he raised his daughter. And the younger Johar – honors and pride of the family. Tsarnaev Anzor, who lost one son, fears that security forces would kill both.

– My children just set up[framed/entrapped]. One killed, how could they? The same intelligence agencies. They had to hold it simple. Now I’m afraid for the second son. I keep in touch with them. Yes, I live far away, but I know what my kids are doing.

– When was the last time you spoke with your sons?

– With Tamerlane immediately after the terrorist attack in Boston. As soon as I heard on TV, how awful it happened, I immediately dialed the phone Sr., asked, “Were you there? Since you did not happen? “He said, ‘Dad do not worry, we did not go there. All are alive and well. ”

– When you last saw sons?

– A year ago. But all the time we called each other. They talked about myself, I know what my kids are doing. Senior – boxer, four-time champion of America, one of the versions. It in the U.S. everyone knows he is a celebrity. Tamerlane is also a musician, playing the piano jazz. Once wanted to become a professional boxer, we tried to dissuade him, they say, is a permanent injury, what do you need it? And then he got married and had a daughter, now she is three and a half years. And he changed his mind to go to the professionals.

– He[ Tamerlane] worked somewhere?

– No, he studied at the acting school, and sat with the child. He has worked as a wife. In a social institution – do not remember the name – took care of the disabled. My son did not have any free time. Everything is on the clock.

– And Johar?When did you last talk to him?

– Three days ago. I Called and asked how things and said that he should come here for a vacation. He agreed. After all, he is the last time the child was, as we left, so never and never returned. I briefly talked to him, he was in a hurry to go to class.

– It is known that he went to Cambridge?

– Yes, my youngest – the pride of the family. Always straight A student, dreamed of becoming a great doctor. He received a scholarship to study as the most talented. Never in any radical groups did not participate, hate talkers. With the money he has, of course, there were problems. But I helped him, sent a little bit, and he himself worked. In his free time, got into the pool lifeguard. He did not have time for all sorts of nonsense. And then, he could not go for it against the will of Tamerlane and his older brother would not allow to deal with such things.

– You yourself why left the U.S.?

– I went back home to die. I had a hematoma of the brain. I was sure – this is the end. But it has taken out, literally at my grave. And my sons were there.

– They became citizens of the United States?

– No, both of them – the citizens of Russia. In Tamerlane wife – an American, but he himself Russian. And Johar too. I fear for my second son. I am afraid that they will kill him, too. But I know – they [the sons] are not to blame.

Stanczyk always loves finding something unusual or unexpected. I guess that is just my eternal boyish wonder of finding/unearthing a treasure. Immigration or the diaspora of Polish citizens about the globe holds a fascination for me. It is a difficult puzzle to solve for your own ancestors. So if I unexpectedly find something else in an unexpected place for another Polish genealogist then I feel compelled to post it in my blog.

Dateline – 22 September, 1954 – Birchgrove, New South Wales, Australia. As a fluke while researching some cholera pandemics, I decided to see if there was any news in this Historical Australian Newspaper website from the Biechow/Pacanow area. To my wonder, I spied a hidden jewel in these far away shores. Up popped, an “advertisement”. Shoot, I was hoping for something historical, not something mercantile. Oh well, lets just see what these Aussies have about Pacanow, shall we?

What did I find? No it was not for me (although it is an affiliated family, so who knows). Click on the image if you wish to follow along … (transcription follows):

I, JOZEF PIOTROWSKI, born in Pacanow, Poland, resident 5 years in Australia, now residing at 39 Wharf Rd. Birchgrove. N.S.W.. Intend to apply for Naturalisation under the Nationality and Citzenship[sic] Act, 1948-1953.

Well, Well, an affiliated family member from my ancestral village (Pacanow) declaring his intention to become a citizen of Australia (NSW=New South Wales state) post World War II.

Yesterday, I wrote a blog on this topic from this jester’s Catholic perspective of reflective respect . But I wanted to be able to embody a Jewish perspective for today. So I thought, “Why not have my wife ‘guest-blog’ for Stanczyk?” Therefore, I give you my wife and her blog (re-blogged from HeiressMommy.wordpress.com). Please enjoy.

Born post Holocaust – in the 1950’s meant for me and other Jewish children an almost etched in DNA early knowledge of the Holocaust. Parents and teachers anxiously compelled to both inform and protect our youthful minds. No escaping the REAL facts that just a few years before our births there were those determined to annihilate our kind. So even today – as a Mother, Aunt and a friend to others children, I ask “What do we tell them and when?” Jew and gentile alike are to be informed, warned and learned in the scholarship of this singular horror because to forget or ignore is to allow a repeat of such despicable actions amongst our fellow human beings. Surely without comparison but not without similar occurrences, THE Holocaust has been morphed into other tragedies for other peoples and this must not be left unpressed by those of us able and willing to act in…

To honor my wife Teréza and our children let me add a Jewish Genealogy blog post. It is for a Polish village in the AP Grodzisk (Warsaw, Blonie) and is called: Góra Kalwaria. Góra Kalwaria can be found in PRADZIAD database. What is great about this news is that there is yet another project beyond the ones I have previously written about (SzukachwArchiwum.pl and Metryk in PTG). This village and its images can be found in: Metryki.GenBaza.pl (AP Gordzisk) for :

This is just one of many congregations (Catholic & Jewish) that they have scanned. There appear to be about 110 villages in total so far this Polish National Archive in Grodzisk (a branch office of Warsaw). I picked this village because it is all about the Jewish congregation (that I provided the Pradziad link for). The records run from 1826 – 1910 inclusive and there no missing years. This is a remarkably complete/intact record of a Jewish congregation in Poland. The scanned records from 1826-1867 are written in Polish and then starting in 1868 the records are written in Russian all the way through 1910.

So for the Jewish-Polish genealogists who read this blog, here is a treasure trove to research. In actuality, many of the 110 villages have Jewish records. Look for the abbreviation ‘moj’ (short for mojżeszowe). So I hope this is a joyful news for the remembrance of this solemn occasion.

From a forum at genealodzy.pl Stanczyk saw a PDF document mentioned. When I looked at it, I saw it was an inventory (in progress) of the holdings of the National Archive in Kielce (AP w Kielcach). So I have produced a condensed version of their work-in-progress. Yes, most of these are related to Stanczyk’s family tree. For their complete inventory list (which was 424 items), see the link (URL) at the bottom of this table.

Now I mention this particular AP (National Archive) because it is the archive that covers the Russian-Poland partition that my ancestors were from. There may be other inventories for other archives.

I tried to provide a reasonable translation (using Google Translator with some hand-tweaks) of the Polish Column Headings in English.

LEGEND (3rd Column):

A suffix of moj or -moj indicates Jewish records.

pr – Orthodox Catholic

ew – Evangelical

gr – Greek Orthodox

The rest (or any with rk) would indicate Roman Catholic.

I believe the Column Heading METRY indicates the actual shelf space of storage this record group physically occupies. I believe the units would be in Meters (m). Remember Europe uses ‘,’ where America uses a decimal point. Some appear to be missing the decimal point. In most cases, it appears that Excel has translated the comma to decimal point, but if you look at the source document, you should be aware of this cultural difference.

is a big fan of Jan III Sobieski. Today’s meme, a continuing meme in this blog came about because Valerie Warunek had posted about Digital Library of Polish and Poland Related News Pamplets. That mention of a new library launched me on another research adventure. When I was looking up other things in Leszno, for Hyam Salomon, I found a Latin text related to Jan Sobieski. This jester loves Jan Sobieski’s letters, particularly those to his beloved wife. This document recounted his victory of 1673 of the Battle of Chocim and was a missive to the pope. This would be a pattern for King Jan III ‘s future battles — letters before and after battle. After the battle, a missive was sent to the pope. King Jan III was a good Catholic monarch.

He claimed the Triumphant Crown in the Name of Poland and the Polish Eagle.

My Latin is not sufficient to render the phrase to the left (I see Polish Eagle = Aquila Polona). But it was signed the Dragon.

Hmmm. Interesting. I know the Transylvanians aided Jan III Sobieski. But I am supposing this is a reference to the Order of the Dragon, a monarchic chivalric order meant to defend Europe’s Christians (from the Ottoman Empire). This battle is a good 100 years after Vlad Tepes(“The Impaler”) aka known as Dracula, son of the Dragon (Vlad II). Vlad II was a member of the Order of the Dragon, but his son Vlad Tepes was not a member of the order. So my thesis is that Jan III Sobieski was a member of the monarchic Order or the Dragon. Note that Wladyslaw II (Jagiellonian dynasty — possible Columbus grandfather) was also a member. So perhaps there was a strong connection of this chivalric order to the kings of Poland.